I was speaking with a couple of association executives recently about their desire to find a new association management system to replace their current AMS. The incumbent system had been in place for more than a decade.

During the course of the conversation, it struck me that the association staff were almost apologetic in the way they talked about their system and their processes:

• "We've had the system in place for 12 years and a lot has changed since then."
• "We made a lot of decisions back then that no longer make sense."
• "Our business and membership have really changed in the last decade."

All of those comments are perfectly legitimate and nothing to apologize for. We must acknowledge that over time, things change. Technology changes. Processes change. Needs change. It's not a failure of you or your AMS if, 10 years later, you need to change how you work or change which technology you use.

If you're really lucky, you'll have an AMS that is continually updated and grows with you and your organization's needs, and you'll be able to use that system for decades. And if you're really smart, you'll continually adapt your business processes to take advantage of new functionality and your changing business needs.

So don't beat yourself up if the time has come to change your technology or your processes (or both!). Things change, and we have to change with them.